440 Mr. E. I. Pocock on the Pattern of the 



ti{>crs and also iu adult lions. There are distinct signs of 

 the whorl of hair on the shoulder *. 



It seems to me that the pattern of lion cubs affords very 

 strong support to Dr. Bonavia's view respecting the origin 

 of the stripes of the tiger from the fusion ot: rosette-spots, 

 such as are seen in Asiatic leopards, into subvertical 

 or obliquely transverse lines. In tigers the stripes are 

 seldom quite vertical, except upon the upper part of the 

 shoulders and hind-quarters. On the sides of the body beneath 

 the lumbar region they are oblique with a decided dorso- 

 veutral inclination backwards. Moreover, they seldom form 

 continuous streaks. Quite commoidy each is broken up 

 into three constituents, a dorsal, a medio-lateral, and a 

 ventral, which frequently overlap at their juxtaposed extre- 

 mities. The medio-] aterals are often suppressed on the 

 thoracic area behind the shoulder, as may be seen in two 

 specimens from Nepal now living in the Zoological Society^s 

 Gardens and in a " Siberian" specimen mounted in the British 

 Museum. It is not unusual to see one or more of the 

 above-mentioned constituent stripes continued by a row of 

 faint spots ; or there may be rows of such small spots on 

 the interspaces between the stripes. Quite commonly, too, 

 one or more of the constituent stripes may be doubled in the 

 form of a long loop. More rarely where there is a greater 

 degree of fusion between the constituents a continuous 

 double stripe results ; and these double stripes may, I think, 

 be truthfully compared with what may be called the rosette- 

 stripes of lion cubs, the anterior and posterior dark rims of 

 the rosette-stripes in the lion corresponding respectively to 

 the anterior and posterior moieties of the double or loop- 

 stripe in the tiger. This, I understand, is substantially 

 Dr. Bonavia's interpretation of the origin of the pattern in 

 the tiger. He did not, however, cite the pattern of the 

 lion cubs in support of his hypothesis, but depended upon 

 that of leopards or jaguars, which supply less cogent evidence 

 in its favour, because in these species the rosettes do not fuse 

 into stripes as they do in lion cubs f. 



* On account of the erroneous belief held by some people that young 

 lions are born with their eyes open, it may be added that the eyes in these 

 two specimens, as in all others I have seen, are closed, as is the case, 

 so far as I know, in all species of Felis. 



t Although 1 have attempted to show that the pattern of lion cubs 

 bears out J)r. Bonavia's views of the origin of stripes of tigers from 

 rosette-spots such as are seen in jaguars, I do not agree with that author 

 in believing that the pattern in Felidse was originally of that type. It 

 must be admitted, I think, that Eimer was right in holding that the 

 pattern in these animals consisted primarily of longitudinal stripes. 



